In 2001 Bärenreiter issued a newly engraved keyboard reduction and solo parts to this concerto based on the acclaimed New Bach Edition.The present expanded publication goes a step further in that it offers not only the two solo violin parts as presented in the New Bach Edition but also two additional parts with fingerings and bowings by the baroque specialist Andrew Manze.Manze also offers players enlightened comments (English/German) on historical performance practices dealing with how the instrument was held fingerings bowing shifting the use of open strings and much much more.

Concerto for String Orchestra - the magnum opus of Grayna Bacewicz (1909-1969) the outstanding composer and violinist - was composed in 1948 and at once became one of the most frequently performed works of this Polish artist. This masterpieceof neoclassicism fascinates as much by its invention and virtuosic briliance as its harmonious combination of formal elements of a traditional nature with new tonal ideas. The form of the three-movement Concerto oscillates between that of the baroqueconcerto grosso and the early classical sonata cycle. The neoclassical tendency is evident above all in the articulation of the musical structure in keeping with the rigours of periodicity and the manner of developing thematic threads derived fromthem while the concertato character of particular movements and the generally linear texture indicate baroque connections. The first movement (Allegro) - in the form of an early classical sonata allegro - begins with a subject with energeticfigurations emblematic for the whole piece and based on a constant pendulum-like semiquaver movement anchored securely on D. It is precisely because of the nature of this subject that Bacewiczs work has been compared to the Brandenburg Concertosby Jan Sebastian Bach The second movement (Andante) while retaining its concertato charakter is at the same time an example of the composers ability to create emotionally serene lyrical moods and her sense of cantilena derived from the spiritof romantic song (a motto-subject presented at the beginning by cello solo). In this movement it is both the process of evolution and the instrumental colouring which constitute the constructional agents forming here a self-containedvalue. In thethird movement (Vivo) the composer returns to her favourite type of music understood as an expression of pure motion in the form of figural motives with infinite transformational possibilities. The spontaneity of the music the constant mutabilityof the tonal situations and the sophisticated acerbic harmonies - as Witold Lutosawski described them - form a colourful mosaic built in the structural skeleton of a sonata rondo. Concerto for String Orchestra is not only proof of thestylizing tendency of the composer but also of an unerring intuition concerning the technical and expressive possibilities inherent in a string instruments ensemble. [Magorzata Gsiorowska translated by Ewa Cholewka]

Cet arrangement polyvalent peut être combiné avec le choeur et / ou de la bande de concert pour faire une finale brillant programme. Hébergement techniques font de cette pièce très jouable. Extraits de trois chefs-d'oeuvre baroque de Noël viennent à cette fête musicale festive de la saison. Titres inclus sont 'Gloria' de Vivaldi, 'du haut du ciel à la terre I Come' de JS Bach, et deux mouvements de Haendel 'Le Messie'. / Orchestre A Cordes